FINALLY a sound has emerged to drown out the ubiquitous drone of the vuvuzela – the booing and jeering of disgruntled England supporters.

After a tricky start to their South African campaign, it was widely assumed England would get back on track last night by breezing past Algeria to show they deserve to be rated as credible contenders for the World Cup on the Cape of Good Hope.

If only. Rather than making a statement of intent, a ham-fisted, error-strewn, impotent performance ruined Fabio Capello’s 64th birthday and left him facing a huge task to stop England facing the ultimate embarrassment.

Make no mistake, an early elimination from the World Cup has now become a real possibility for England after this debacle and, suddenly, Franz Beckenbauer’s barbed comments about kick-and-rush football earlier this week are ringing true.

Once brave, bold and bursting with confidence, England are now staggering backwards like a boxer that has taken a hefty blow to the chin and Capello must find a way to stop the rot; he, after all, is responsible for this situation developing.

It is a constant source of exasperation to some coaches when they hear armchair pundits questioning their ideas on tactics, starting line-ups and formations and no coach gets his ideas questioned more than the man in charge of England.

Clearly, it will forever be that way and Capello, for all the gongs he has won with AC Milan, Juventus and Real Madrid, is not immune to the chatter – his selection in Cape Town’s magnificent Green Point Stadium showed why.

Everyone who knows the ball is round is well aware Steven Gerrard is never more dangerous than when playing in a central position and his performance in the opening 1-1 draw with the United States proved that point.

So why, then, did Capello feel it necessary to take the edge off Gerrard’s ability to thrill by playing him out on the left hand side? From an early stage you could see the Liverpool skipper’s frustrations, drifting into where the action was.

By the latter stages of the second period, he looked a pale shadow of the figure that had led by example against the United States in Rustenberg, demoralised by the way Capello had sacrificed him.

“It is not for me to prejudge what the manager is going to do and I will do whatever job the manager asks me to do to the best of my ability,” said Gerrard on the eve of the game, desperately trying to be diplomatic.

“But, if I am able to play in a more attacking role, then it suits me and I will look forward to that. Hopefully in this game you will see a more fluent performance from England.”

We didn’t but that was not his fault. This was the 82nd time Gerrard had been chosen to represent his country but how many times has he actually played in his best role? Being generous, at the very most you would say a quarter.

While we are on the point, how long has Gareth Barry been a national treasure? He might be a competent midfielder but to suggest his return to action would suddenly transform England into world-beaters is not a credible argument.

Honest he might be but will he win a game on his own? Exactly. Gerrard and Wayne Rooney are the only men in England’s squad capable of getting fans off their seats, so surely it makes sense to have them working in tandem?

When you also consider the uncertainty replacing Robert Green with David James in goal caused, it is no wonder that England again looked a hotchpotch ensemble, failing to exert any kind of influence or tempo.

So frustrating. A tournament that had resembled a damp squib in the opening days has suddenly come into life in the last couple of days, teams like Argentina and Chile playing with verve and vivacity, vim and vigour.

All England could do here was rustle up a performance that vexed those watching in disbelief and it is not stretching things to say the opening 45 minutes were abysmal; Algeria’s erratic keeper Rais M’Bolhi remained bewilderingly unemployed.

This Algeria team, remember, had lost five of its last six games, had been demolished by the Republic of Ireland prior to this tournament and had only scored one goal – a penalty – in that period.

Theoretically, they should have been out of sight before Capello even had to begin thinking about his half-time team talk but never once did they give the impression they were ready to cut loose.

Is that down to Capello? Probably.

He is strict and stubborn and England’s players looked tense for much of this encounter; if you want evidence, look at how Gerrard got caught in two minds in the 54th minute having surged into Algeria’s box.

Normally when Gerrard skips into such a position, his right leg is pulled back before he unleashes a shot that gathers speed on its way into the net.

Last night, however, he elected to check and give one of his team-mates what he thought would be an easy chance; instead he rolled it into the path of an Algerian defender, who cleared without fuss.

Given what was at stake, the performance was scarcely believable; every minute that ticked by led to tension on the terraces and on the pitch increasing; Capello, normally a picture of cool, squirmed and fidgeted as he paced his technical area. His actions were out of character but, then again, his actions since the end of the season have been completely out of character, from his desperate attempts to coax Paul Scholes out of international retirement to his substitutions last night.

Rooney ending up on the left flank? Peter Crouch finishing galloping down the right? Utterly mind blowing. England fans are not normally known for being the most rational but the booing at the final whistle was totally understandable. To stop boos turning into calls for his head, Capello must find a winning formula in time for next Wednesday’s make-or-break clash with Slovenia; fail in that game and the drone of the vuvuzela will end up sounding like the sweetest melody.